Vishwaroopam: Police must make sure movie releases, says Rahul Bose

As Kamal Hasan's Vishwaroopam faces a major road block because of protests by Muslim groups claiming that the film portrays Muslims in poor light, actor Rahul Bose, who plays the villain in the film, has said that the State and the police can stop any cultural terrorism if they want.

"The government can say you can protest against the film peacefully, but that hardly ever happens... The State and the police, if they wish, can stop any cultural terrorism," Bose told Rajdeep Sardesai on a show on CNN-IBN.

Image from Ibnlive

"The film was cleared by the censor board. The police should say we will do everything in our part to make sure the film releases. But that hardly ever happens. On the contrary, in the name of law and order the film is postponed" Bose said.

Bose also vehemently denied claims made by J Hajagani, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, that the movie portrays the Quran as the hand book of terrorists by saying "That is utter nonsense. Do you really think that I would be part of the film that purposfully incites relgious violence?"

Actor Prakash Raj supporting Bose's comments said that such protests at the last moment have put Kamal Hasan in a tough spot, even after censor boards of four states had cleared the film.

"We cannot stoop down to such protests. We have to stand up together and not avoid the issue. It happened to Kamal Hassan today, it can happen to you and me tomorrow. There is no point in just blaming the government," Raj said.

The film was banned by the Tamil Nadu government banned the film for 15 days. Reportedly, the film might not be released in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as well.

In Karnataka, a distributor told The Hinduthat they are still mulling over the issue and with Id-e-Milad on Friday and Republic Day on Saturday, they believe it might not be a good time to release the film.

In Andhra Pradesh as well, Vishwaroopamwill not release today, according to ABP News. The home minister has reportedly given directions to postpone the release.